Madam slipped it over Cora’s face.

“Zere!” the milliner exclaimed.

“Lovely!” declared Bess.

“Very beautiful!” added Belle.

Louise, the little girl helper, gave a wonder look of admiration.  Louise had well-trained eyes.

“Would you know me?” asked Cora with a little laugh.

“Never!” replied Bess.  “Won’t it be splendid?  Suppose we all get things alike?  Then we can travel—­incog!”

“Oh, jolly!” cried Belle.  “Just fancy Walter asking me to have soda, and he thinking I’m some one else!”

Cora laughed merrily at Belle’s joke.  Walter’s preference for Cora was no secret.

“How about my cloak?” asked Cora.

“Not quite ready,” replied madam.  “You see, zat naughty Marie, leaving me so—­”

“Did you say some of her relatives were ill?” ventured Bess.

“I believe so.  Some aunt, away in some far place.  Marie is gone to her.”

Louise took the mask and hood from Cora and flitted away with them beyond the silk curtains.  There was to be a stitch taken here, and a little, tacking up was needed there.  The veil was to be a bit closer, the milliner explained.

Next Madam Julia turned to the twins.

“My friends wish to see about some motor things, also,” remarked Cora.  “What would you think of having them all alike—­for us there?”

This brought on such a discussion, madam talking more in French than English, and Belle was kept busy translating for her sister.

The madam preferred giving the young ladies such hoods and cloaks as would best suit their complexions.  Bess should have a brown one—­just running to the shade of her hair, but not quite reaching it, and Belle needed a dark blue—­for only a true blond can wear dark blue and not look old in it.

So madam explained.  But the twins would not decide, after all, until their mother could be consulted, so the order was not definitely placed.

When they were about to leave, and madam had vanished behind the silken draperies, Bess turned to one of the hat sticks, upon which rested a most conspicuous piece of headgear.

“Oh, look at that!” she exclaimed.  “Isn’t it awful?”

“It certainly is ridiculous!” chimed in Belle, taking the motor hood, for such it was, off the support and holding it up for inspection.

“That’s certainly what madam calls a ‘creation,’” said Cora.

“Who in the world would ever wear that?” asked Bess with a laugh.

“I expected to,” unexpectedly replied a voice behind them.  The three girls turned quickly to confront Ida Giles.  She had come in so quietly that they had not heard her.  Cora, Belle and Bess looked dumfounded.

“And perhaps in the future,” went on Ida in icy tones, “it would be just as well to leave another person’s hat alone.”

“I beg your pardon,” Cora managed to say, “We—­er—­we were just—­interested in motor hoods.”